The Cabinet on Tuesday endorsed a supplementary agreement to the free trade deal concluded between Korea and the United States, a government spokesman said.In December, the two countries came to a final consensus on the bilateral free trade agreement after revising terms on issues such as auto tariffs and pork, paving the way for the parliamentary ratification of a pact that was originally signed

BRUSSELS (AFP) ― A key European parliament committee endorsed Monday a major free trade deal with Korea after securing safeguards to protect Europe’s auto makers.The International Trade Committee voted overwhelmingly, 21-4, to send the deal, hailed as the most ambitious free trade pact ever negotiated by the European Union, to the full parliament for a final vote.Doubling EU trade with Korea, the

Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s second-largest mobile phone maker, maintained its lead in the North American cell phone market last year with a record share, industry data showed Tuesday. Samsung shipped 58.4 million cell phones in 2010 in the United States and Canada, claiming 30.2 percent of the handset market there, according to the data by market research firm Strategy Analytics, Inc. The

Korea’s banking giants are tapping China, Vietnam and other Asian countries as they wade through competition in the highly saturated local credit card market, industry watchers said Tuesday.The overseas push comes as Korean card firms have been beefing up their marketing expenses in a bid to lure more subscribers with spin-offs and new entries expected to further intensify competition to grab a bi

Korea‘s economy still faces many uncertainties despite its recent rebound, a government report said Tuesday, urging more efforts to achieve a “sustained” recovery by coping with lingering downside risks at home and abroad. Debt problems in advanced nations, growing inflationary pressure in emerging countries and unrest in the Middle East are cited as downside factors that could weigh on the Korean

The use of Internet banking in Korea rose 27 percent last year from a year earlier as more people conducted financial transactions online for convenience, the central bank said Tuesday.Online banking transactions reached 33.7 million per day on average in 2010, compared with 26.5 million the previous year, according to the Bank of Korea. The data is based on users checking financial records, trans

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – Amazon on Monday released a preview version of a Kindle software update that puts electronic book readers on the same page with friends still clinging to ink and paper works.Page numbers in tens of thousands of Kindle digital books, including bestsellers, have been matched with those in real-world copies of the titles.“Our customers have told us they want real page numbers th

The central government plans to tighten its grip on the management of water resources nationwide in a move apparently aimed at expediting its controversial river renovation projects. The work to clean up and develop Han, Nakdong, Geum and Yeongsan rivers has been delayed by the recalcitrant provincial governments in charge of them. The Ministry of Land, Transportation and Maritime Affairs said Tue

KT Corp., Korea’s largest phone and Internet company, agreed to buy a 20 percent stake in BC Card Co. from Woori Bank to expand into mobile-payment services.Woori will have the option of buying back a portion of the stake if KT begins its own credit-card business, Lee In Won, a spokesman for the Seongnam, Korea-based phone carrier, said Tuesday. The deal is subject to further internal approval, he

The Korean bond market continues to see an outflow of funds for a third month as investors flee to capture rising yields elsewhere and tab on bullish equities. The investor exodus is led by foreigners who were fast to exit the market to avoid a revived tax of as much as 14 percent on interest income which Seoul imposed in January to limit capital inflows. Analysts attributed the continued price de